532 



PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



of a melanhcolic temperament, and by its being always attended 

 with some seemingly groundless but very anxious fear. 



MDLXXXIII. To explain the cause of this, I must ob- 

 serve, that persons of a melancholic temperament are, for the 

 most part, of a serious, thoughtful disposition, and disposed to 

 fear and caution, rather than to hope and temerity. Persons of 

 this cast are less moveable than others by any impressions ; and 

 are therefore capable of a closer or more continued attention to 

 one particular object or train of thinking. They are even ready 

 to be engaged in a constant application to one subject ; and are 

 remarkably tenacious of whatever emotions they happen to be 

 affected with. 



MDLXXXIV. These circumstances of the melancholic 

 character, seem clearly to show, that persons strongly affected 

 with it, may be readily seized with an anxious fear ; and that 

 this, when much indulged, as is natural to such persons, may 

 easily grow into a partial insanity. 



MDLXXXV. Fear and dejection of mind, or a timid and 

 desponding disposition, may arise in certain states, or upon cer- 

 tain occasions, of mere debility ; and it is upon this footing that 

 I suppose it sometimes to attend dyspepsia. But in these cases, 

 I believe the despondent disposition hardly ever arises to a con- 

 siderable degree, or proves so obstinately fixed as when it occurs 

 in persons of a melancholic temperament. In these last, al- 

 though the fear proceeds from the same dyspeptic feelings as in 

 the other case, yet it will be obvious, that the emotion may rise 

 to a more considerable degree ; that it may be more anxious, 

 more fixed, and more attentive ; and therefore may exhibit 

 all the various circumstances which I have mentioned in 

 MCCXXIL, to take place in the disease named HYPOCHON- 

 DRIASIS. 



MDLXXXVI. In considering this subject formerly, in dis- 

 tinguishing Dyspepsia from Hypochondriasis, although the 

 symptoms affecting the body be very much the same in both, 

 and even those affecting the mind be somewhat similar, I found 

 no difficulty in distinguishing the latter disease, merely from its 

 occurring in persons of a melancholic temperament. But I 

 must now acknowledge, that I am at a loss to determine, how in 

 all cases hypochondriasis and melancholia may be distinguish- 



